by: Muhammad Salih al-Munajjid
Advice: Beware of the dangers of the small screen.
Hardly any home nowadays is free of some device that includes a screen [TV and
computers], and very few of these machines are used for wholesome or beneficial
purposes. Mostly they are used for harmful and destructive things, especially VCRs used
for watching movies. With the arrival of satellite dishes which bring shows directly into
Muslim homes and the widespread sale and exchange of movies, the matter of controlling
these devices has become nearly impossible.
There follows a list of some of the harmful and corrupting effects that result from
watching TV etc. After thinking about them, let everyone who wants to earn the pleasure
of Allaah and avoid His wrath do what he can to change the situation:
Impact on our faith (‘aqeedah):
- Showing the symbols of the kuffaar and their false religious signs, such as the cross, Buddha, their temples, gods and goddesses of love, good, evil, light, distress and rain. There are also missionary movies that call on people to venerate the religion of Christianity and become Christians.
- Giving the impression that some created beings could compete with Allaah in creating and giving life and death, such as some scenes which show people bringing the dead back to life by using a cross or magic wand.
- Spreading lies, myths, legends, witchcraft, fortune-telling and soothsaying, all of which contradict Tawheed.
- Giving the impression that we should show respect to the representatives of false religions, such as the pope, bishops and nuns who treat the sick and do good!
- In many dramas, characters swear by things other than Allaah, or play with the names of Allaah, such as when one character called another ‘Abd al-Qeesaah. [This implies disrespect towards Allaah by toying with names that mean “slave of [Allaah]” – which areamong the best names that a person can have. For example, ‘Abd al-Rahmaan means “slave of the Most Merciful”, ‘Abd al-Hakeem means “slave of the Most Wise” and so on, but ‘Abd al-Qeesaah means nothing and makes a mockery of such names. – Translator]
- Causing doubts about Allaah’s power, or His ability to create; or portraying life as a conflict between Allaah and man.
- Those who watch such things lose the concept of disavowing oneself and distancing oneself from the enemies of Allaah, because these shows and movies portray things that make them admire the characters of the kuffaar and their societies, and break down the psychological barriers between Muslims and kuffaar. Once the idea of hatred for the sake of Allaah is removed, they begin to imitate these kuffaar and take new ideas from them.
Social impact
- Admiration of kaafir characters when they are shown as heroes in these films.
- Propagation of crime, through showing scenes of violence, murders, kidnap and rape.
- Forming gangs as is shown in films, to commit acts of aggression and crimes. Youth detention centers and jails bear witness to the impact of the movies in this regard.
- Learning the arts of cheating, fraud and forgery, taking bribes, and other kinds of major sins.
- Calling for women to imitate men and vice versa, which clearly goes against the hadeeth of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) in which he cursed those who do such things. So we may see a man imitating the way a woman walks and talks, wearing a wig and jewellery, using dyes and make-up. Or we may see a woman wearing a false beard or moustache, and making her voice deep. This is one of the causes of promiscuity in society and the emergence of the “third sex”.
- Instead of taking the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), Sahaabah, scholars and mujaahideen as examples, people follow actors, singers, dancers and sports players.
- Men no longer feel any sense of responsibility towards their families, so important needs are ignored and sick children are neglected, because the head of the family is glued to the TV and may even hit a child harshly if he dares to interrupt his viewing of a movie.
- Rebellion of children against their parents, as is propagated on TV and in the movies. If a child insists on taking money from his father, and his father reminds him of the rights he has, the child in a TV drama may say, “Just because you are my father does it mean that you can rip me off?!” But the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “You and your wealth belong to your father.” (Reported by Abu Dawood, 3530).
- Breakdown of family ties, because people are too busy watching movies to visit one another. When they do visit, they do not have any kind of useful conversation or discuss solutions to family problems because they are gathered around the screen, silently watching.
- People are distracted from taking care of their guests properly.
- Spread of laziness and idleness and reduction in productivity, because the TV takes up the Muslim’s time.
- Marital discord and mutual hatred; outbreaks of reprehensible jealousy, as when a man praises the beauty of a woman on TV in front of his wife, and she responds by mentioning a handsome actor or newscaster.
- Absence of the proper kind of jealousy (gheerah), because people get used to watching scenes of mixing, wives being uncovered in front of non-mahram men and unveiling of daughters and sisters, and they are influenced by calls for women’s liberation.
Moral impact
- Provoking desires by showing pictures of women to men, and images of handsome men to women.
- Calling society to show that which should be hidden by promoting revealing clothes and getting people used to seeing them.
- Calling for relationships between the sexes and teaching people how to get to know the opposite sex, what sort of words should be exchanged in the beginning, means of developing the forbidden relationship, telling stories of love and passion and holding hands… etc.
- Falling into immorality and zinaa because of films which portray such things. Some people even reenact what they see in the movies with some of their mahram relatives, may Allaah protect us, or do bad things whilst watching these films.
- Teaching women different kinds of dances which reveal their ‘awraat and are tempting to men. This is a kind of promiscuity and deviation.
- Developing a joking personality and no longer taking anything seriously, in addition to the fact that too much laughter corrupts the heart, because of comedy films.
- Spread of foul language which is used in many movies and TV shows.
- Making people miss Fajr prayers because they stay up late at night to watch what is being shown on the screen.
- Causing people to pray late, not to mention causing men to miss the prayers in the mosque, because their hearts are too attached to some soap opera, movie or sports match.
- Causing people to hate some acts of worship, as sometimes happens when an exciting match is interrupted so that people can go and pray.
- Reducing the reward of some of those who fast, or causing their reward to be lost altogether, because of the sin of watching these haraam things.
- Criticism of some of the rulings brought by sharee’ah, such as hijaab and polygamy.
Historical impact
- Distorting Islamic history and covering up the facts; failing to mention the achievements of Muslims in movies that speak about human history.
- Distorting proven historical facts, by showing oppressors as if they are oppressed, such as claiming that the Jews have a just cause.
- Belittling the heroes of Islam in the eyes of viewers, as in some dramas or movies where actors play the roles of Sahaabah, leaders of Islamic conquests or scholars and portray these personalities in an improper manner, mixing the story with love scenes, where the actors are immoral and corrupt in the first place.
- Subjecting the Muslims to psychological defeat and spreading fear among them by showing different kinds of advanced weaponry in the hands of the kaafirs and making the Muslims feel that it is not possible to defeat them.
Psychological impact
- Acquiring aggressive and violent attitudes from watching wrestling and violent action films with scenes of bloodshed, bullets and sharp weapons.
- Instilling fear in the hearts of those who watch horror movies, so that a person may wake up screaming because of the dreams he has seen as a result of some scene that has stuck in his memory.
- Distortion of children’s and adults’ sense of reality by watching unreal scenes, because Allaah has dictated that there should be cause and effect. An example of this is some of the unreal scenes shown in cartoons, which have an effect on children’s behaviour in real life.
Impact on health
- Harm caused to eyesight, which is a blessing about which each person will be questioned.
- Increasing the rate of heartbeat, raising blood pressure and heightening nervous tension and so on, when watching horror movies and scenes of bloodshed.
- Late nights cause harm to the body, and each person will be asked on the Day of Resurrection how he used his body.
- Physical harm caused to children when they imitate Superman and the Man of Iron and others; harm caused to adults when they imitate boxers and wrestlers.
Financial impact
- Spending money on buying TVs and films, paying for repairs and improvements and receiving equipment [dishes, descrambling devices, etc.]. A person will be asked about this money on the Day of Resurrection: what did he spend it on?
- Many people rush to buy extras that they do not need, or they compete in buying clothes because of the advertisements etc. that they see on the screen.
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